The Midnight Club Riverdale (Volume 2)

Hermione's POV: Hot Tub Havoc 2/3

I stepped into Pop's, the familiar jingle jangle of the bell chiming as I opened the door. I looked around, it was relatively busy, mostly filled with teenagers sharing milkshakes and chatting, enjoying their summer break. That's what I was supposed to be doing. Instead I was caught up in a web of lies, upset and murder "Hey Hermione!" Came a bubbly voice. I turned to see Mary, walking up to me "How are you doing?" She asked. I hated that question. I nodded "I'm okay, yeah, just doing as well as I can I guess" She frowned "It must be so awful for you! And I thought I had it hard witnessing Amber's death!" She placed a hand on my shoulder "If there's anything I can do, just let me know!" I smiled "Thanks, Mary" She turned on her heels and walked off. I turned away and looked around scanning the booths, until I finally found ours. I walked towards it and my smile faded as I got close to it. Fred was sat there opposite FP, a blunt expression on his face. He looked up at me, surprised. We both looked at FP "I thought it was just gonna be is two?" I asked quietly "Yeah, sorry, I kind of had to lie to get you all here" "Thanks a lot dude" Fred whined. I looked at him, he couldn't even make eye contact with me. I fought the sadness inside of me and sat myself down next to FP "So, what did you lure us here for?" I quizzed "I'm not exactly craving a strawberry milkshake and a pink donut right now, am I?" FP itched his nose "You'll see but...." He trailed off as his face lit up. I looked to where he was gazing at. Alice was traipsing towards our booth, a pissed off look on her face. She looked at us one by one "Wow FP, you really rallied up the troops" She perched herself next to Fred, opposite me "Thought it was supposed to just be us" She clenched her teeth together "Not that that would be any better" FP's smile faded, he looked hurt "Sorry" He looked back and forth between us all "I needed to get you all here, okay? We need to talk about this whole situation maturely-" Alice snorted "I don't think anything about this situation is mature, besides I already told you, I'm done with this detective dare shit" Fred nodded "Me too" I chewed on a bit of my hair, the sweet taste of my hairspray lingering in my mouth "Yeah I'm done with it too" I chirped up. Everyone looked at me "I'm done being a pawn in this game....I almost died!" I fell silent, still holding back the tears. FP nodded "Yeah, exactly, you almost died! We need to find the son of a bitch who did this! We can't just sit around doing nothing!" He cried a little bit too loudly. He looked around and lowered his voice "We have to do this, okay? If not for us then for Janet! For Shana, for Amber, for everyone who has been a victim!" I dropped the piece of hair I had clasped in my hand, FP'S passionate words swirling around in my brain "Please, guys! We have to do this!" I shook my head "No, we don't" Everyone looked at me "Trying to find out who The Angel Of Death is is exactly what he wants! It's a suicide mission, we'll end up dead!" I paused "If we do this we'll end up like them! Dead!" I sighed "Maybe we should just leave it up to the professionals! God maybe we should even tell them about the dares, I don't know!" FP shook his head "No! Whatever we do we cannot tell them about the dares Okay! Or that we were at Sweetwater River the night Janet died!" Alice shrugged "Okay then, let's not tell them a thing" she leaned in towards us "Hermione's right though, we should just leave this up to the cops" Fred nodded "Yeah, I agree" All eyes were on FP. His arms were folded and he looked terribly angry. Eventually he sighed "Okay then, fine, whatever, but what are we supposed to do in the mean time" Alice blinked "We try and carry on with our normal lives as best we can, we act like everything's normal, we go to the Picken's Carnival next week, try and have fun" Oh, The Picken's Carnival, in the midst of things I'd totally forgotten about that. She smirked "To start with things, there's a party on tomorrow night, I'm going, wanna come?" "Parties? Since when do you go to parties?" Asked FP "Since now" "Do you mean Hal's one?" Fred asked "I'm already going" "Sweet" Alice looked at me "Hermione?" I pouted "No thanks, I'm not really in the mood, besides my mom would NEVER let me" Alice tutted and then looked at FP "You coming?" He hesitated but then eventually said "Okay, fine" So I guess this was it. We were just going to pretend like everything was normal when really it wasn't. It never would be again.